into...

This new music project by Ensemble Modern and Siemens Arts Program, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, will attempt to grasp the essence of a city by music. Sixteen outstanding composers have agreed to join in this project. Beginning in February 2008, four composers will spend a month in variously one of four megacities - Istanbul, Dubai, Johannesburg, and Pearl River Delta - to compose a work reflecting on it for Ensemble Modern. These sixteen attempts to cast the essence of a city in music will be performed from October 2008 onwards as musical "cityworks".

Since 2006, over fifty per cent of the world population lives in cities - a fact that thrusts the city into the center of social and scientific interest. And since time immemorial its enticements have prompted people to move - whether in the hope of fulfilling their longings, or in search of economic and social success, or with the wish for personal happiness. Simultaneously the city has undergone constant change. On no one day is it the same as the day before, and yet it retains its substance. But what distinguishes the nature of a city? What determines its specific "essence" over and beyond the familiar associations and connotations, beyond its outward appearance, its geographical location or climatic conditions? "into..." is an artistic attempt to home in on the city and to provide musical answers to such questions.

The selected composers who will be stepping "into" Istanbul, Dubai, Johannesburg and, Pearl River Delta, are: Mark Andre, Beat Furrer, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, and Vladimir Tarnopolski (Istanbul), Vykintas Baltakas, Markus Hechtle, Márton Illés, and Jörg Widmann (Dubai), Luke Bedford, Jörg Birkenkötter, Lars Petter Hagen, and Lucia Ronchetti (Johannesburg), and Unsuk Chin, Heiner Goebbels, Benedict Mason, and Johannes Schöllhorn (Pearl River Delta).

Between February 2008 and May 2009, the composers will each spend a month in their designated city. There in cooperation with the local branch of the Goethe-Institut, a program will be individually tailored to the composer's interests during his or her stay and researches. The composers will be put in contact with the scenes of their choice. Possible points of departure for this are the visual arts, new and traditional music, sociology, architecture, urban planning, migration, the natural sciences, the performing arts, among many more. During their stays they will also liaise with city's universities and colleges and give lectures, for instance, to the students.

The concerts by Ensemble Modern will be performed in the period from Autumn 2008 and Summer 2010 in locations such as Frankfurt, Berlin, Essen, and the original cities Istanbul, Dubai, Johannesburg, and Pearl River Delta.

The four megacities chosen for "into..." exemplify a number of major developments in modern urban growth:
Istanbul, metropolis of three empires and a cultural melting pot, is the only city to straddle two continents. For a long time it was by far the richest and most powerful city in Europe. Its cosmopolitan significance fell however into steady decline, until in 1923 its status as capital was transferred to Ankara. But in terms of commerce and culture it remains the heart of modern Turkey. As a city on the turbulent periphery of Europe, Istanbul's hustle and bustle is fed by various religions and cultures. Now as then, it is a place where different worlds converge.

Dubai currently stands like no other city for the worldwide flow of migrant workers. Over 85 per cent of the population consists of guest workers from Asia, the U.S.A., and Europe. Once a small settlement of fishermen and pearl divers, Dubai has transformed into a fast-paced go-getting metropolis. Spectacular architectural projects twinned with consumer and cultural attractions tell of luxury and pleasure, but also of an enormous ability to transform and move.

Before the first gold strikes in 1886, all that existed at the site of South Africa's present commercial and industrial hub was an endless vista of virgin Savannah. Right from the start, Johannesburg was marked by strong contrasts and contradictions, and today it is considered one of the world's most dangerous cities. Yet now, Johannesburg, with its powerful pulsating vitality, is more than ever the place on which countless migrants pin their hopes.

Sprawling along the delta where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea are a row of megacities, including Macao and Guangzhou, which have grown into a gigantic conurbation. With the introduction of the Chinese policy of openness in the 1970s, the Pearl River Delta received state funding so that it could carefully be developed into a "Super-Agglomeration" with enormous economic clout. But in the areas where land is still restricted from being transformed into urban space, the buildings remain flat. Here the future has been suspended for the time being from the fishhooks of tradition.

Will it be possible to fathom the heart of these four cities, which could scarcely be more different, and distil a musical essence from them? "into..." is both an experiment and a challenge for all involved - for the initiators Ensemble Modern and Siemens Arts Program, for collaborating partner Goethe-Institut, and above all for the participating composers who will transform sensory experience into music.